4.  The applicant was born in 1951 and lives in Kaunas.
5.  On 17 November 1992 the Kaunas City Board restored the applicant’s property rights to part of a building in Kaunas. In particular, it restored the applicant’s property rights to 1/12 of the uninhabited part of the building (hereafter “the disputed premises”). The property restitution decision specified that the property rights to the disputed premises would be restored in accordance with the procedure and terms fixed by the Government.
6.  On 15 October 1993 the Kaunas City deputy mayor and the applicant signed a statement of transfer acceptance (priėmimo-perdavimo aktas), by which the disputed premises were transferred to the applicant. On 21 December 1993 the applicant registered his title to the property.
7.  By a decision of 21 March 1994, the Kaunas City mayor declared the statement of transfer acceptance unlawful and consequently null and void. By a decision of 31 May 1994, the Kaunas City Board supplemented the decision of 17 November 1992 with a clause which specified the form in which the property rights were to be restored It was decided to pay compensation for the disputed premises, at that time occupied by a pharmacy, after the Government had determined the means and the procedure by which compensation was to be paid.
8.  By a decision of 14 June 1994, the Kaunas City Board transferred the disputed premises from the balance sheet of one State-run company to the balance sheet of the State-run company of Kaunas area pharmacies. Subsequently, by a decision of the Kaunas City Board of 14 June 1996 the disputed premises were transferred into the private ownership of the closed-stock company Šlamučio vaistinė.
9.  On 3 June 1994 the applicant brought a civil claim (“the first civil case”), challenging the local authorities’ decisions of 21 March 1994 and 31 May 1994. It was dismissed as unsubstantiated by the Kaunas City District Court on 4 July 1994.
10.  On 22 August 1994 the Supreme Court quashed the lower court’s decision and remitted the case for a fresh examination. The Supreme Court noted that the lower court had not examined all the relevant circumstances. In particular, it had not taken account of the fact that, at the time of the adoption of the impugned decisions, the applicant had already been recognised as the owner of the entire building. The Supreme Court observed that only a court and not a local authority could have annulled the applicant’s ownership rights.
11.  On 7 October 1994 the Kaunas City District Court decided to suspend the civil proceedings further to a request by the applicant, on account of the illness of one of his relatives, V.A., who was also a plaintiff in that case. The court ordered the applicant to inform it when his relative’s state of health would allow her to participate in the proceedings.
12.  On 3 October 1994 the State-run company of Kaunas area pharmacies brought a civil claim, seeking the partial annulment of the Kaunas City Board’s decision of 17 November 1992 (hereinafter “the second civil case”).
13.  On 8 January 1996 the applicant and other plaintiffs brought a new civil claim (hereinafter “the third civil claim”), challenging the Kaunas City Board’s decision of 14 June 1994.
14.  On 1 July 1999 the Kaunas City District Court of its own motion resumed the civil proceedings in the first civil case.
15.  On 2 September 1999 the Kaunas City District Court decided to join all three cases and examine them together.
16.  On 9 September 1999 the Kaunas City District Court granted the applicant’s claim. It declared the local authority’s decisions of 21 March 1994 and 31 May 1994 null and void, restoring the applicant’s title to the premises occupied by the pharmacy.
17.  On 28 February 2000 the Kaunas Regional Court upheld that decision.
18.  On 12 September 2000 the Supreme Court quashed the lower courts’ decisions and returned the case to the Kaunas City District Court for an examination de novo. The Supreme Court considered that the lower courts had again failed to assess all the relevant circumstances – even those to which attention had been drawn in its decision of 22 August 1994 – and that they had erred in law.
19.  On 18 February 2004 the Kaunas City District Court dismissed the applicant’s claim. The court observed that the law had not provided for restitution in kind of immovable property if it had been occupied by public-interest institutions, such as a pharmacy. The court further interpreted the decision of 17 November 1992, noting that it could not have been read as guaranteeing restitution in kind of the entire building, but only of the unoccupied part. The court annulled the ambiguous phrasing of the decision, leaving it to the local authorities to determine how to remedy the situation, either by pecuniary compensation or by the transfer of an equivalent property.
20.  On 23 September 2004 the Kaunas Regional Court upheld the decision of the first-instance court.
21.  On 26 January 2005 the Supreme Court dismissed a cassation appeal by the applicant.
22.  On 25 May 2005 certain parties to the case, including the applicant, submitted a request to the Kaunas City District Court to interpret its decision of 18 February 2004. Their request was dismissed on 21 June 2005.
23.  On 3 April 2006 the applicant instituted civil proceedings challenging the initial proportions of his and other interested parties’ property rights, as fixed by the decision of 17 November 1992. In a final decision of 5 September 2007, the Kaunas City District Court noted that, although the applicant had been duly informed about the hearing, he or his lawyer had failed to appear, thus failing to contribute to the speedy resolution of the proceedings and showing no interest in their outcome. The applicant’s claim was left unexamined.
24.  On 11 December 2008 the head of the Kaunas City Municipality issued an order to pay the applicant pecuniary compensation for the disputed premises. The compensation was to be paid in three instalments from 2008 to 2010 and for that purpose, in a letter of 15 December 2008, the Kaunas City Municipality requested the applicant to indicate the details of his bank account. The applicant refused to accept the municipality’s letter.
25.  By the above-mentioned decision of 17 November 1992, the Kaunas City Board restored the applicant’s property rights to 1/12 of the plot of land adjacent to the disputed premises and measuring 2,097 sq. m. Pursuant to that decision, 1/12 of a plot of land measuring 1,288 sq. m was to be returned to him in kind and for the remaining part, equivalent to 1/12 of 809 sq. m, compensation was to be paid.
26. On 12 November 1996 the Kaunas City Municipality adopted a detailed territorial-planning decision which specified that the actual existing size of the plot of land which was to be returned in kind was 950 sq. m and not 1,288 sq. m.
27.  On 8 April 2002 the applicant submitted a claim to the Kaunas Regional Administrative Court, requesting it to oblige the Registers Centre to record the applicant as the owner of 1/12 of the plot of land of 1,288 sq. m adjacent to the disputed premises. On 15 May 2002 the applicant also challenged the detailed territorial-planning decision of 12 November 1996.
28.  On 4 March 2005 the Kaunas Regional Administrative Court dismissed the applicant’s claims. The court noted that the decision of 17 November 1992 did not specify the exact location of the particular plot of land to which the applicant’s and other interested persons’ property rights were restored, since at the time of the decision no territorial planning had been carried out and the plot of land had not been measured or marked in any particular place. It followed from the nature of the decision that it merely established that property rights to a plot of land had been restored, without specifying the particular location of that plot. Consequently, the decision of 17 November 1992 did not give the applicant the right to register his title to that plot in the State Land Registry.
29.  The court also noted that the decision of 12 November 1996 had established that the plot of land of 1,288 sq. m did not exist, its real size being 950 sq. m. No evidence had been submitted to the court which could question that finding. Since the decision of 17 November 1992 was valid, the issue of compensation for the difference in size of the plots (by assigning the applicant an equivalent plot) or their exact location was left for determination by the competent local authorities. The Kaunas Regional Administrative Court further noted that the territorial-planning decision aimed to establish the activity permitted on the disputed land and to safeguard the public interest.
30.  On 21 June 2005 the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the lower court’s decision. The court emphasised that, in accordance with domestic law, a plot of land in respect of which property rights were restored had to be delimited in a territorial plan. The decision of 17 November 1992 on the restoration of the applicant’s property rights to the plot of land at issue lacked any characterisation allowing it to be specifically identified (cartographically or by any other form of delimitation) as an item of immovable property. Moreover, data of that kind had not even existed at the time of the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision. It followed that the Kaunas City Board had not established the applicant’s entitlement to a particular plot of land, but only his right to obtain restitution in kind of 1/12 of a plot of land measuring 1,288 sq. m.
31.  On 22 January 2006 a cadastral survey was carried out, which fixed the dimensions of the plot of land adjacent to the disputed premises at 1,038 sq. m. The applicant took part in the process and accepted the results of the survey as regards the area of the land in question. On 9 May 2007, on the basis of the cadastral survey, the Kaunas County Governor adopted a decision on the basis of which the plot of land adjacent to the disputed premises was registered in the State Land Registry. On 2 April 2008 the Kaunas County Governor issued an order establishing the parts of the plot of land to be assigned to the applicant.
32.  On 4 June 2008 the applicant requested the Kaunas Regional Administrative Court to discontinue the case regarding his claim of 8 April 2002.
33.  By a decision of 13 October 2008, the head of the Kaunas Regional Administration restored the applicant’s property rights to a plot of land of 44 sq. m, adjacent to the disputed premises. The decision specified that the applicant was entitled to compensation for the remaining 131 sq. m.
34.  In a letter of 11 December 2008 the local authorities requested the applicant to state his preference as regards compensation for the remaining 131 sq. m.